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Son in Utah entrapment case caught

Posted: 11:38 PM, May 15, 2016

Updated:2016-05-16 03:38:33Z

By:
Associated Press

PINEDALE, Wyo. (AP) — A woman and her four teenage daughters who were lured to a Utah house and tied up in the basement were thrilled and relieved to learn the father and son charged in the bizarre attack were in custody in Wyoming, authorities said Sunday.

But despite their arrests, neither man was cooperating with investigators trying to learn more about what led up to the violence.

Officers culminated a manhunt late Saturday night with the arrest of Dereck James "DJ" Harrison, 22, several hours after the surrender of his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office said.

The men face various charges stemming from the Tuesday attack in Centerville, Utah, including aggravated kidnapping and possession of a controlled substance.

The younger Harrison was arrested without incident shortly after 10 p.m. MDT, in the forested Half Moon Lake area of western Wyoming. He was booked into the county jail. He told the U.S. Forest Service officer who arrested him that he had been hiding in the trees and brush most of the day until he saw a helicopter involved in the search and knew police were closing in, Centerville Lt. Von Steenblik said. He walked toward officers who were manning a roadblock and surrendered, officials said.

Police had said the younger Harrison was heavily armed with rifles and knives, but he was unarmed when authorities arrested him, the lieutenant said.

His father turned himself in earlier in the day and had been helping authorities find his son.

"This is an incredible end to a very stressful day," Sheriff Stephen Haskell said.

Meanwhile, authorities said the woman and her daughters are recovering after the attack Tuesday in Centerville, Utah. "They're very happy, very relieved, and just trying to move on," Steenblik said.

The men are accused of tying the mother and daughters up with zip ties. When the elder Harrison hit the woman with a baseball bat, the teens began to break their ties and try to escape, according to charging documents. In the struggle that followed, one girl slapped away a shotgun pointed at her throat and another grabbed the bat and hit the son, police said.

The victims managed to escape.

The father and son had been using methamphetamine heavily over several days and falsely believed the woman had reported them to authorities, police said. Both have refused to talk to investigators since their arrests, Steenblik said.

The younger Harrison was a close friend of the woman's family. He often visited the home for dinner or picked the girls up from school. The teens, aged 13 to 18, had known him for several years.

The Harrisons fled and were eventually picked up by someone who took them to Salt Lake City, where they spent Tuesday night in a hotel.

The elder Harrison is a registered sex offender. He surrendered in Pinedale for reasons still unknown to police.